1912: First steps in blue and white The club was founded in 1912 by a group of Jewish students from Petah Tikva, who were studying in the
Ottoman city of
Constantinople (many of them would later serve in the
Ottoman army during
World War I), making it the second oldest Jewish football club in Israel after
Maccabi Tel Aviv, which was formed in 1906.
1920s: Pre-independence In 1921, after the death of founder member
Avshalom Gissin during the
1921 Palestine riots, the club added his name to the club's name, and the club was named "Maccabi Avshalom Petah Tikva". In 1927, the club moved to the Maccabi Petah Tikva Ground, where they would play until the 1970s. In 1939 they reached the
final again, but lost 2–1 to
Hapoel Tel Aviv. The following year they won the
Haaretz tournament.
1950s: Second major title and goals galore The club was included in the new
Israeli League in 1949, and finished fifth in the inaugural post-
independence league table. In the next season (
1951–52, there was no 1950–51 edition) they finished as runners-up to champions Maccabi Tel Aviv and also won the
State Cup, beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 1–0. In
1953–54 (1952–53 was also not played) they also finished second with
Eliezer Spiegel finishing as the league's top goalscorer on 16 goals from 22 matches.
1960s: The dark times After several seasons of mid-table finishes, Maccabi finished bottom of the table in
1962–63 (a season in which the club were deducted 3 points due to suspicions of bribery during a game with
Maccabi Jaffa) and the club lost the
second-leg 5–0 (also on aggregate) in
Abe Lenstra Stadion. Maccabi's most significant achievement of the decade came in the
2004–05 season when the club finished second in the league and reached the
group stage of the
2005–06 UEFA Cup. In the
second qualifying round the club defeated Macedonian side
FK Baskimi 5–0 in
Skopje stadium and 6–0 in
Ramat Gan, advancing to the
first round after 11–0 on aggregate. Maccabi entered as an unseeded team due to a low coefficient rating (
7.218), and drawn a seeded team such as
Partizan Belgrade with a much higher coefficient rating (
30.012). The
Serbian side won the
first-leg 2–0 in
Ramat Gan. Two weeks later, at the
second-leg in
Partizan Stadium, Maccabi has made the impossible – contrary to all assessments and expectations, with a lot of faith and ability above all, they won 5–2 and 5–4 on aggregate. In a sensational comeback with
striker Omer Golan scoring a hat-trick (21', 44', 48'). The victory sent Maccabi to be a member of
Group B, along with
Palermo,
Brøndby,
Lokomotiv Moscow and
Espanyol. However, these elite clubs proved to be too much for Maccabi to handle, and the club lost all four group-stage matches, scoring just 1 goal while conceding 9.
2020s: It's been 72 years... After a defeat to
Hapoel Beer Sheva in the 2020
cup final, the club reached the
final again during the
Israel State Cup campaign. Once more facing Hapoel Beer Sheva, the club managed to lift the trophy, securing their third cup win after a 72-year drought. At the end of the 2024/25 season, Maccabi finished the league in 13th place and was relegated to the Liga Leumit. ==Players==